To Meet On Silent Footfalls
by Leuny
Summary: This is before Shinichi's time as a renown detective: a time where Shinichi wasn't such a good detective yet and didn't know everything. One night, during a retrieval and arrest operation of the police, he meets somebody... This has emerged due to a Writing Challenge on the poirotcafeproboards forum! Thanks for the idea! The topic? A late-night heist, and two old rivals meeting...


"_To Meet on Silent Footfalls"_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either DC or MK. I own my ideas though… and playing around with the boys – especially the following two – and their various adventures is quite fun. Thanks for the grandiose idea, dear poirotcafe-forum! This story was written in response to the second Challenge issued by this selfsame proboards forum.

Here's the rules of this challenge: write around 4000 words, the theme is: "Late-Night Heist", the optional prompt I took into consideration was: "Kaito vs Shinichi". The theme selector was: Nikudou Natsumi. Thanks for the idea! :_D

**AN:** Yes, I know. The quality of this oneshot is quite… trouty. Yes, that's a word. If salmon can be an adjective (great thanks to whomever I got this catchy word from – don't know any more who that was… probably a fanfiction I read somewhere…), then trouty can be, too. That's because I'm doing a million things all at once atm: I'm continuing my main fanfiction, _**We Are Golden**_, which I've chosen as a project for this year's nanowrimo, I'm studying for a Reading List Exam at the 27.11. on top of minor exams and tests before this date and to top this all off with a cherry, some relatives from far-away Guam have decided to spontaneously visit with us over here in Europe these coming two to three weeks. In short: I'm BUSY. But I won't bore you any more; on with the show, now!

_ToMeetOnSilentFootfalls_

The night air was cold and hit his back like an uncomfortable cushion pushing against him. The young amateur-sleuth was crouched behind some trash containers, close to a house wall, together with Megure-keibu and some of his policemen. He wasn't about to face the bank robbers on his own, after all, so he'd been with the police ever since they'd asked him whether he'd like to try his luck with figuring out where they had their hideout.

According to his findings, the robbers were hiding their loot in the abandoned factory building close to the harbor and were currently inside the building. They'd robbed the bank a few days prior to the police asking him to help them, so the robbers were by now probably counting on the fact that they were pretty safe in their little hideout. Fortunately for the police, Shinichi hadn't needed the time the police had given him and found them in record time – within a few meager hours, the hideout didn't remain half as hidden to his eyes as the robbers had possibly wished it could be.

The police had made plans to storm the building and arrest the bank robbers – safe ones, where he could actually be part of the action without being part of the action at all – and tweaked them to accommodate him and thus, he'd been carted off in a police car and brought to where he was right now. The wait was a long one.

Oh, he'd played the waiting game before, of course. Being a junior detective didn't come without some of the perks and disadvantages of a real detective, after all, and he'd been no different. Waiting for the police to storm the building was no different than waiting for a criminal to abandon his hideout or to do something that could be taken as proof for his crime.

The only weird thing at this particular mission was the fact that some Division Two officers were accompanying the selected Division One officers on the operation. Apparently, whenever there was a murder involved in a burglary – such as was the case here – Division One officers shared the responsibility of the mission with a few Division One officers. Shinichi hadn't known about that particular fact before, but it was clear for him now why Megure-keibu had asked for his help in finding them. That was, nonetheless, the reason for why the plan had to be approved by so many people before they went through with it, so the whole operation had to be put back another few days before its implementation.

Fortunately, all considered, he didn't have to wait for long. With a light signal, the police put the plan into action.

_ToMeetOnSilentFootfalls_

It was pure chaos. Policemen had been trying to keep the caught bank robber group members down, while others had tried to follow the fleeing ones and cut them off and still other policemen secured the building. It all had gone to hell once the shooting started. Some of the police answered the shots, they'd been trained for that, after all, but they couldn't keep everything under control at once and at least one of the bank robbers left the building while they hadn't been looking. Funny, they hadn't counted on there being more than a dozen people involved in the bank robbing, but obviously they'd been wrong.

Shinichi, in the meanwhile, had patiently been waiting outside with about five other policemen who counted as reinforcements and whom Megure-keibu hadn't thought he'd need inside in the beginning. Thus, when some of the bank robbers left the building, the policemen attempted at stalling them and putting them under arrest. This, however, turned out to have been a fatal mistake: the bank robbers started shooting at the policemen and at least one of those went down before the criminals left via a side street.

The young sleuth, who'd been hiding behind the trash containers in said side street at the time, only saw a black shadow of two people passing by before he gave chase. It happened on instinct. He couldn't let anybody – most of all the criminals involved – get away, so he ran after them. So determined was he not to lose sight of them, that he didn't think about them possibly noticing him following. In fact, he didn't think about anything in particular. They were criminals and he had to pursue them. That was all.

_A lucky coincidence it was, then, that a certain hang glider was flying just above their heads. Actually, its owner was currently very much engaged in the activity of running away, himself, but he couldn't help but notice the cat-and-mouse chase below him. His eyes surveyed the action below and, after mulling over his next few moves in his head, he'd decided to help. An unseen grin spread over his face. The monocle glittered in the light of the full moon, before the glider descended and he prepared to land._

The two criminals, whom Shinichi was following, meanwhile, weren't stupid. Of course they'd noticed their lone pursuer. And they had a plan in mind. Upon having rounded the next corner, they stopped, just out of sight, turned around and got their guns out, in preparation for what would come next. What they hadn't counted on, however, was the almost-silent whoosh that came from behind them. This was all the warning they got, before the one that stood a bit behind got a knock to the head. And once the other one turned around in response to this, he only saw a glimpse of white before he got a dose of sleeping gas right into his face.

"Nighty~", a voice said quietly, before their attacker made his way back up onto the roof. He didn't want to wait around for the detective, who in this exact moment came sprinting around the corner, almost running right into the downed criminals. Shinichi stopped short at what he saw. In shocked surprise, he kept standing there for quite a few seconds more, before he finally got his brain back into gear and looked around for their attacker – whom he hadn't seen upon entering this side street. The detective hadn't felt threatened at all when he'd turned around the corner, which was also why he'd let himself be as unguarded as to stand around doing nothing for a few moments before springing into action.

The teenager did the sensible thing once he'd made certain that the robbers didn't have any weapons on them any more, pulled out his mobile phone and called Megure-keibu.

"Megure-keibu? Yes, yes, it's me, Kudô Shinichi." He flinched. "No, no. I didn't – Yes. Yes, I ran off. No, I am unharmed." A short pause. "Keibu!" Apparently, that got him the attention of the moustached inspector.

"I am currently standing in front of two downed criminals. Yes, they are the same bank robbers that I followed. How many did you manage to arrest in the main building? Did you get all of them?" By then, all of them knew that there had been at least fifteen people being involved in the bank robbing.

"Yes, yes. I'll send you the exact location via sms, if that's okay with you?

Yes.

Yes, I will remain where I am. Thank you. Goodbye."

Weird. The inspector had said that Division Two was involved in the operation, too, but why had it sounded to the sleuth as though even together, they hadn't managed to arrest at least one of the main people involved in the robbery yet? And where had he heard that voice before – that somewhat distorted voice, that was shouting out orders in the background of Megure-keibu's angry voice?

Some ropes were lying around right beside the robbers. The young detective decided to bind them together, so they wouldn't try anything funny while he mightn't be looking their way. Once decided, Shinichi sat up the unconscious bank robbers. Next, he took the ropes and bound their hands together first, before he wound them around their upper bodies, tying them together. When that was done, the apprentice detective stood up, once more, thinking about the bank robbers and reflecting on how this night's operation had gone so far.

Lost in his thoughts as he was, the detective only just noticed the feeling of someone watching him from somewhere, before there was a brief breath of wind coming from his right hand side, from where he'd come from, at the crossroads, just a few feet away. On a whim, he crossed the small distance with a few quick steps and halted in the middle of the crossroads. Behind him were the criminals – bound tightly together so they couldn't do anything – and to his left was the alleyway he'd come running from. Right in front of him was a wall. And to his right…

… was a dead end, with a wall at the end of it.

Yet it wasn't that one-floor-high wall that Shinichi was interested in right then and there. It was the black silhouette that was standing leisurely upon said wall. A cape blew slightly in the wind behind the gestalt. He could make out a top hat, too. Altogether, Shinichi thought that the whole ensemble might have sprung out of one of his father's novels. Even though the famous author's son hadn't yet read them, he was pretty sure it was the case here. Didn't the Night Baron wear a cape, too?

Stunned into silence, he held his breath.

The full moon alighted the night directly behind the gestalt and bathed it in bright moonlight. Something glittered close to the face of the person. The top hat sat still on the person's head. Colors couldn't really be made out – the whole ensemble was either black, darkish white or grey, depending on where you looked and how the moonlight fell on them. Their feet appeared planted firmly on that wall, their hands disappeared somewhere in their costume. Did they have them in their pockets? Only the cape moved, back and forth, as though right out of a dream. The situation was eerie in the spectacular serenity that it exuded. A feeling of placidity was transferred onto Shinichi and calmed him down considerably. The scene seemed imperturbable. This was something entirely… new to the teenage detective. What on earth was going on?

Sirens suddenly blaring loudly from somewhere behind the detective broke the tranquility of the scene.

Shinichi started badly and turned his head around shortly. When he turned back to the wall nigh a second later, the silhouette was gone. It had disappeared into the night and with it the calm it had brought to Shinichi. It was then that he finally noticed the shouts of the criminals he'd bound tightly a few steps beside him. He'd been so absorbed in the situation that he hadn't noticed anything. Only the moon was a silent witness to the experience that the young sleuth had been participant of just a few minutes prior.

_ToMeetOnSilentFootfalls_

When he'd come back to the hideout of the bank robbers, there were a great many more policemen there than he could remember there having been earlier. His eyes widened in surprise as he heard a tall man shout loudly at one of Megure-keibu's officers a bit of a distance ahead of him. Hadn't he heard that voice somewhere before?

Shinichi thought back to where it was that he could have heard that voice before. A loud whirring noise sounded from above. Ah! That had been at a different heist, hadn't it? A helicopter had been there, too, and he'd been in it. Briefly, he glanced upwards in askance. A police helicopter? Here?

Blinking, he turned back to the more important issue at hand: wasn't that an inspector from Division Two, then? He'd only heard him once before, at another burglary earlier that year it had been… but what was an inspector from Division Two doing here? His men had already been sent to support Megure-keibu and follow the head-wearing inspector's command; why would there be another inspector there at this time of night?

Moving leisurely over there, towards the inspectors in order to discuss the night's mission with them, he mulled over the reason for another inspector's involvement this late into the operation. That was why, once he'd passed a police car on his right hand side with sirens alit, he almost literally ran into a police officer who was going from somewhere behind the car to the left of him.

"Ah! Sumimasen! I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." He apologized quickly and bowed. The policeman did so, too. "Sumimasen." The man smiled at him a little. Then Shinichi let him pass, before he went on his way again, this time shaking his head and paying attention to where he went, all the while having something at the back of his mind that didn't make sense, but being a tad too tired to properly analyze it. His eyebrows scrunched up in thought.

It was only when he neared the inspectors that he finally realized what it was that was bothering him. That policeman. Quick as lighting, he turned around and diligently scrutinized the policemen standing around the near vicinity. That policeman had disappeared. That policeman… he'd been looked way too young to be serving in the police already. Besides that, there was also the fact that he'd probably been the one who'd put something into Shinichi's left pocket. It felt heavy now, which it hadn't done before he'd passed the police car. He took out a handkerchief from his jacket's inner pocket and put it around his left hand. When he put this hand into his trousers' pocket, his hand carefully closed around an object that Shinichi _knew_ he hadn't put there. What was that?

Taking it out, he had a look at it in the bright moonlight. It was a small, clear-cut diamond. He'd had a diamond in his trousers' pocket. Numb, he held it up a bit more, before he called out to Megure-keibu.

"Megure-keibu!", the older man's attention was snatched right out of the conversation that he'd had with the other inspector. Apparently, his tone was sufficient to signify the importance of his find. The inspectors both came over to investigate. Once they arrived at the place he stood in, he went on,

"I believe I have got something here that you might want to have a look at." Their eyes widened as well, unseen by Shinichi.

"The diamond! That is the last piece that was missing in the bank robbers' loot! Where did you get it?"

All Shinichi could answer to this was, "I had it in my pocket. I didn't have it in my pocket when I was over there. When I was coming over here, it somehow ended up in my pocket." He turned his head to properly look at the smaller inspector. But it was the bigger one – dark hair, also a moustache, serious face – that answered.

"Yes, yes. Kid's known for those tricks. Give it here. I need to get it to forensics – maybe this time we'll find some fingerprints!" Despite his words, the older man's attitude pretty much screamed that he appeared to be resigned to the fact that there probably wouldn't be any.

"Well, maybe this time.", he said as Shinichi put the diamond carefully into his hand. A smirk made its way onto the man's face, while the junior detective had a look at his watch. Three o'clock in the morning already? He doubted the inspector would find anybody from forensics wanting to work on this at this time of the night. Nevertheless, with newfound enthusiasm and completely undeterred by the late night, the Division Two inspector turned around towards his men and ran off, boastfully shouting, "This time I'll catch you, Kid!"

Shinichi could only stare after him at his quick change in attitude and his seemingly boundless enthusiasm and ask, "Who?"

Megure-keibu tried to diffuse the situation and nonchalantly said, "Oh, just a thief. Don't worry, Division Two has got it covered.", before he went off in search of his subordinates.

Musing to himself, Shinichi murmured, "A thief, huh?" Thoughtfully, he stared at Nakamôri-keibu and his men's retreating backs and muttered to himself, "How convenient." He made to follow them, when he felt it again. Briefly, lightly, a flutter of the feeling of being watched made its way to the detective. Following his instincts, Shinichi turned back around. Nobody was watching him, as far as he could see. What had he felt? His gaze travelled upwards to the ball of light in the night sky, shining brightly down at them.

Oh, great. The moon seemed to be laughing at them. Shaking his head, the young sleuth went back to follow Megure-keibu and discuss tonight's heist retrieval with him. Maybe they'd find their mistakes and do it better next time.

It was only much, much later, that the young Kudô heir found out that that night's heist retrieval had coincided with a Kid heist. At said Kid heist, the phantom thief had stolen and given back a diamond. In this case, it was a diamond that he'd known to be within the loot of the bank robbers that Shinichi and the police had been after. The magician thief had stolen and brought back the gem in the same night; and Shinichi hadn't even known to look for him. Not that he'd known his name yet, either. This heist was, after all, far before he'd ever been shrunk to Conan Edogawa and officially met Kaitô Kid, phantom thief extraordinaire. Nonetheless, this had been one of the earliest meetings of the two rivals. And shortly thereafter, the Kaitô Kid Task Force had officially been approved.

The game was on!


End file.
